oy Williams' tumor was benign (not cancerous), according to North Carolina

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Last week, Roy Williams underwent a surgery that lasted more than three hours (AP photo).

If tumor in left kidney is benign, Williams won't need a second surgery

The tumor removed from North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams' right kidney last week was benign (noncancerous), the school announced Tuesday.

“Number one, I want to express how overwhelmed I have been by the outpouring of support, concern and good wishes by everyone, especially members of the Carolina Basketball family,” Williams said in a school release. “I’ve just been blown away by the calls, cards, prayers and well-wishes from people all around the world, in and out of the basketball community. My family and I are thankful to all that have expressed your concerns.

“I also want to thank the entire medical team and staff at UNC Health Care. The treatment and care were exceptional."

The removed tumor was an oncocytoma (pronounced ON-ko-sigh-TOE-muh), which is often indistinguishable from kidney cancer on X-rays and diagnosed postoperatively. Unlike cancerous tumors, oncocytomas don't spread.

Williams also has a tumor on his left kidney. Because the tumor on his right kidney was an oncocytoma, his doctors believe there's a good chance the tumor on his left kidney is the same. They plan to perform a biopsy of the left kidney tumor next week, and another surgery would not be needed if it is also an oncocytoma. If it's not an oncocytoma, Williams could have a second surgery next month.

“We are pleased with how well Coach Williams is doing," Dr. Eric Wallen, who led the surgical team, said in the release. "If everything continues to progress as expected, he should be back to his normal activities soon."

North Carolina's Late Night with Roy event is scheduled for Oct. 12, the same day as the Fast Break Against Cancer breakfast that Williams has helped organize since 2005. Preseason practice officially begins Oct. 13, and the Tar Heels face Shaw in an exhibition on Oct. 26.

The regular season starts with a home game against Gardner-Webb on Nov. 9.

"As someone who spends every day stressing the value and importance of a team, I can confidently say that UNC Health Care has an extraordinary team," Williams said. "I can’t thank them enough.

“There is still work to be done, but we will continue to deal with that over the next few weeks and get through it with the help of first-rate medical care and the continued support of my family and our extended family and friends through Carolina Basketball.”

I Shall not Walk Alone Meaning

This is a beautiful song, I think you can really hear Harpers emotions while he sings. The slow and calm lyrics, really add to the song.

I think it is obviously that this song is about the persons relationship with God. He has been through a lot. He is tired, broken and worn, but he is knows that he does not walk in this world alone. 

"Battered and torn
still I can see the light
tattered and worn
but I must kneel to fight"
-Even though this person is down and been through a lot, he still holds onto faith and God.

"Friend of mine
what can't you spare
I know some times
it gets cold in there"
-He is referring to God when he says friend. He is looking for anything God can spare to help his through tough times.


"When my legs no longer carry
and the warm wind chills my bones
I reach for Mother Mary
and I shall not walk alone"
-He could be referring to death and his last moments, or simply a tough time in his life. If he is talking about death, than he is saying that when the end finally comes, he will go to "Mother Mary"(ie-virgin Mary) and to heaven, thus no longer walking alone in the world like he's been doing

If he is simply talking about hard times, than he is putting his faith in God/virgin mother, to help his through those times and walk with him and give him strength.

"Hope is alive
while we're apart
only tears
speak from my heart"
-Even though he is going through troubles times, there is still hope for him. He still has faith, even though he is separated from God(ie-not in heaven).

"break the chains
that hold us down
and we shall be
forever bound" 
-He is talking about death and the earthy chain that keep us here. When that chain is broken(through death), he will be able to join God for eternity and be bound to him forever.

"Beauty that
we left behind
how shall we
tomorrow find"
-It not too late to find the beauty in things. Even if you pass it one day, there is still hope that you will find it in the future. 

"Set aside
our weight in sin
so that we
can live again"
-He is talking about seeking to put aside all the sins of his life, and being able to move on and live again. If he has hit troubled times because of these "sins", than letting them go will allow him to live his life again.

The Soul of Gospel- You're Not Alone"

CLOSE CALL - Chuck Close

He was big and clumsy and not very athletic. Because he was dyslexic, everyone considered him dumb and lazy. He was told to forget about college. He couldn't play sports because he couldn't keep up with his friends.
But that wasn't the only pain Chuck Close had to deal with in his young life. His father, a sheet metal worker, plumber and on-the-side inventor, was always in ill health and moved the family from Monroe to Everett to Tacoma to Everett in search of civil service jobs with health benefits.
When Close was 11, his life became pure hell. His father died. His mother, a trained pianist who in the Great Depression gave up her aspirations for concert career, got breast cancer. They lost their home because of medical bills. His grandmother was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. And Close, an only child, spent most of the year in bed with nephritis, a nasty kidney infection.
One thing did help him cope with the mind-numbing agony, sadness and misery: art.
He always liked to draw. At age 4, he knew he wanted to be an artist. At the age of 5, his dad made him an easel for his birthday and got him a set of oil paints from Sears. In an attempt to win friends and "get kids to be around me," he also did magic and puppet shows. He drew and painted. People noticed.
Little did Charles Thomas Close know back then that he would indeed to go to college, graduating not only from the University of Washington in 1962 (magna cum laude) but from Yale as well. Now, at the age of 57, he is one of the true superstars of art. His works hang in the world's most prestigious museums, he is considered by ARTNews magazine to be one of the 50 most influential people in the art world--and he is so big he turned down a major retrospective at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art because promises were broken. He chose the Museum of Modern Art instead. No one can recall an artist ever turning down the Met.
But this is much more than just the story of a local boy who made good. On Dec. 7, 1988, at the age of 49, Close was at the height of his career as a portrait painter when he was stricken with a spinal blood clot that left him a quadriplegic. Many thought his career was over.
As he came to grips with life in a motorized wheelchair, unable to move from the neck down, with little hope for improvement, his biggest fear was that "I was not going to make art. Since I'll never be able to move again, I would not be able to make art. I watched my muscles waste. My hands didn't work."
But like the previous tragedies in his life, that didn't stop him either. He not only returned to painting, but with a new style that has kept his place as one of the great American painters of our time. This month he will receive a new honor to add to the mantle of his Manhattan home--he becomes the 1997 UW Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus, the highest honor an alumnus of the University of Washington can receive.

Just a little Luther

Luther's First Thesis and Last Words

by David Mathis | October 30, 2008

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491 years ago today, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg.

He wanted to debate the sale of indulgences with his fellow university professors. So he wrote in Latin.

But a nameless visionary translated the theses into German, carried them to the printing press, and enabled their dispersion far and wide. Luther ended up with more than he bargained for, but he proved to be no coward in defending the discoveries he was making in Scripture.

First Thesis

The truth of Luther’s first thesis would reverberate throughout his lifetime, even finding expression in his last words.

His first thesis reads,

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said “Repent,” he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.

All of the Christian life is repentance. Turning from sin and trusting in the good news that Jesus saves sinners aren’t merely a one-time inaugural experience but the daily substance of Christianity. The gospel is for every day and every moment. Repentance is to be the Christian’s continual posture.

Last Words

Almost 30 years later, on February 16, 1546, Luther’s last words, written on a piece of scrap paper, echoed the theme of his first thesis:

We are beggars! This is true.

From first thesis to last words, Luther lived at the foot of the cross, where our rebellious condition meets with the beauty of God’s lavish grace in the gospel of his Son—a gospel deep enough to cover all the little and massive flaws of a beggar like Luther and beggars like us.

The life of Martin Luther, was one of full obedience and utter submission to God.  He was a single minded idealist with one purpose to express change in the Catholic Church in bring out the importance of a relationship with God and having true fear, reverence, wisdom and understanding for the supreme authority with is Christ Jesus.  During his life people were caught up with the tradition and the works and works of the Pope.  Luther had a true understanding that its not about being attracted to a certain personality or just by works we attain eternal life. (Works without faith is nothing.)  Will we step out in faith and go and share love with others who need encouragement and a kind word today?  Blessings.

Kirk

Do you want to be a Champion?

PHOENIX — John Wooden has not coached a basketball game since 1975, but his immense influence on the game of basketball can be seen from the fact that his Pyramid of Success was posted this season on the locker of Amare Stoudemire, a player who did not even play college ball and wasn’t born for seven years after Wooden retired.

But Wooden — who passed away on Friday of natural causes — was that big of a giant in this game, influencing so many basketball players from his era and subsequent ones.

His lessons are universally revered among those in the game of basketball, and his wisdom will keep him alive in the game for many years to come.

There never has and never will be another coach like Wooden, and it’s unlikely that his dominance at the college level will ever be surpassed. He won 10 of the 12 titles between 1964-75, including seven in a row between 1967-73. Wooden’s Bruins lost a grand total of 10 games in his 10 title years and at one point they won an unfathomable 88 consecutive games.

During the Nash Era, the Suns have always been better as the hunters rather than the hunted, as evidenced by the special 2004-05 and 2009-10 seasons that started with little expectations. The only other time a Nash Suns team made the conference finals was the underdog 2005-06 team missing Amare.

Grant Hill repeated that exact sentiment in the aftermath of the Suns’ conference finals loss to the Lakers.

“Next year we’re going to be hunted, people are going to come after us because of what we were able to accomplish this season, and so we have to be prepared for that,” he said. “We can’t sneak up, we can’t be that silent assassin that surprises teams all season. I think it’s tougher when you are considered a good team.

“People have watched us and seen what we’ve done and people are going to be circling their calendars and preparing and wanting to get a win against the Suns next season.”

Before the conference finals, I wrote about the Disease of More. Basically after a championship season (or in a watered-down form after a good season like the Suns’ this year), everybody wants more money, more time, more touches.

We’ll be seeing that next month when Amare seeks a max contract, Channing Frye asks for the biggest contract he will probably get in his career, and Lou Amundson looks for his first decent NBA contract. It’s why sustained success is so difficult in any sport, because when you taste success everybody wants to go get their big dollars and expanded roles elsewhere, and you aren’t as hungry as you were the first year.

The Suns still obviously will be hungry for a title, but we know the Suns’ trio of big men will be looking to cash in on the open market.

Of course, Wooden did not have to deal with free agency departures at UCLA, but he did have to deal with the complacency that can set in with a team that wins and his Bruins ALWAYS were the hunted.

That complacency is a reason we haven’t seen back-to-back champs in the NBA since the Lakers three-peated from 2000-02, why we haven’t seen back-t0-back baseball champs since the 1998-00 Yankees dynasty, and why we have seen just the 2003-04 New England Patriots repeating this decade.

Since Wooden left college hoops there have been only two different repeat champions, the special 2006-07 Florida teams and Hill’s own 1991-92 Duke Blue Devils. Sure, the talent pool is much more diluted these days, but for Wooden to have won 10 titles in 12 years and for there to have been only a pair of repeat champs in the past 35 years says a lot about the Wizard of Westwood.

But really that should be no surprise to anybody familiar with some of Wooden’s most famous quotes. Here are some of my favorites:

“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”

‘Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

“Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.”

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

We lost the world’s greatest college basketball coach ever and an even better man on Friday. May his wisdom be an inspiration for future basketball teams at all levels, including — of course — the Phoenix Suns.

Read more: http://valleyofthesuns.com/2010/06/05/john-wooden-inspire-suns/#ixzz26ldve6WK

Sustaining Grace

Sustaining Grace 2nd Corinthians 12:1-10, especially verse 9  by Derek Gentle Sustaining Grace is God's timely infusion of spiritual strength to protect His people from despair and bitterness and which empowers them to mature through suffering.  1. Sustaining Grace supplies spiritual power when we are weak "And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness' Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." - 2nd Corinthians 12:9  2. Sustaining Grace enables us to avoid despair ". . . Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our god and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace" - 2ndThessalonians 2:16 NIV: "Eternal encouragement" It is realistic: "Well-founded hope" (Amplified) 3. Sustaining Grace helps us at just the right time "Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16  4. Sustaining Grace keeps us from bitterness "Looking diligently lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by this many become defiled" - Hebrews 12:15  5. Sustaining Grace matures us through suffering "But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you" - 1st Peter 5:10 3 basic results: (1) Fixing what's broken - "That no defect may remain" (John Wesley) (2) Making us strong - "That you may conquer all adverse power"  (3) Stabilizing us on a firm foundation - "As a house upon a rock"